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Angela Bassett Joins the Cast of Marvel’s, Black Panther!!!

She’s always been a queen to us! Now, she will play one, as the mother of Chadwick Boseman’s T’Challa, the Black Panther!

We’ve already re-dubbed this black superhero movie a super-black hero movie, and we weren’t sure it could get any better, and yet, this!

Details are scant, but since N’Yami, T:Challa’s birth mother, died whilst giving birth to him (for which older brother Hunter blames him), Bassett will play his stepmother, Ramonda, known as The Queen Mother. There’s a long back story in the comic books about her being kidnapped back to her native South Africa when he was 8 years old, though for years he believed she left him. It’s not clear how the cinematic universe will alter the story.

Aside from Leslie Uggams’ Blind Al in, Deadpool (2016), Marvel is a little light on strong female mentors. It will be interesting to see if, with Ramonda newly widowed, she takes on an advisory role.

Bassett has previously played a comic book character as DC’s Dr. Amanda Waller in the poorly-received 2011 feature, Green Lantern starring Ryan Reynolds. Waller was most recently played by Viola Davis in this year’s Suicide Squad and by Cynthia Addai-Robinson in TV’s, Arrow series.